There are a myriad of situations in which a coating composition is applied onto a surface in order to impart the surface with desired properties. For example, floor polishing or finishing compositions are widely used in commercial buildings, educational institutions, homes, and restaurants to provide durability, toughness and gloss to the floor surface and enhance its wear resistance. Some floor finish preparations are applied by spraying; others are applied using a mop or similar applicator or some combination thereof. The application of floor finishes is commonly performed manually by pouring a liquid floor finish composition from a container and spreading the floor finish across the floor surface with a mop or squeegee device. For larger surfaces, such as those found in commercial settings, two or more individuals often work together to apply a floor finish. One method is to have one worker spreading or spraying the finishing composition on the floor while another worker follows behind dragging a mop or other type of spreader through the wet composition in order to evenly and smoothly distribute it on the floor surface. The spreading process is labor intensive and typically requires maintenance personnel to make multiple passes of the mop over the floor surface in order to achieve a complete and even coverage of the floor area. For a large commercial building, such an operation could take many man-hours to apply a single coat of finish to the floor.
A variety of different mops or applicators have been used to spread floor finish on a floor surface. Applicators with a flat mop head made of microfibers are often used, because they tend to provide a smooth, even coverage of floor finish, without leaving undesirable streaks or mop marks in the floor finish. However, such mop heads typically exhibit a high degree of drag when run across a floor surface. Conventional mop constructions employing microfibers tend to mat down, thereby creating an increase in drag force when wet with, for example, water, floor finish, or cleaning solution. This high level of drag means that workers using the applicator must exert a greater degree of force pulling or pushing the mop along the floor, which generally makes the task of applying the floor finish more difficult and tiring.
In addition to applying floor finishing compositions, the problem of excessive drag is also a concern with respect to applicators or spreading devices, e.g. paint rollers/pads, hand wipes, etc., used to apply other types of chemicals or coating compositions onto hard surfaces because the material which give the best performance in coating also often have heavy drag. Thus a need exists for an applicator that is able to provide a smooth, even coating of a chemical composition onto a substrate surface with a relatively low level of drag.